“Workstations” or “cubicles” are commonly used in modern offices to divide larger open spaces into smaller work areas or units. The term “workstation” is hereinafter used interchangeably in this specification and claims to fully encompass both the terms “cubicles” and “workstations”. Such workstations may be arranged as stand-alone entities, as is common in, for example, reception areas, or may be grouped together in rows or clusters, as is common in, for example, general office areas. In either case, each such workstation is typically comprised of two or more wall sections of variable height, which do not typically reach the ceiling of the office in which they are situated, interconnected to one another, and quite often of three or more of such wall sections, which together partially enclose a work area for one or more users of the workstation. A work surface is typically mounted on one or more of the wall sections by means of cantilever arms or the like, as may be one or more office furniture accessories such as, for example, shelves, cabinets, bins, drawers and the like.
Workstations of this general type have, for a variety of reasons, including, without limitation, design flexibility, more efficient space utilization, and greater user comfort and efficiency, become very popular over the last several decades, to the extent that they have, to a significant extent, replaced free-standing desks in larger, open-area office environments.
Wall panel systems for constructing workstations can be divided into two major types as follows: those having wall sections comprised of a single monolithic wall panel; and those having wall sections comprised of a plurality of smaller wall panels stacked one above the other in substantially parallel relation to form each wall section. The latter type of stacked wall panel system evolved from the former monolithic panel type, and appears, of late, to be gaining ascendancy thereover. This is likely due to several factors. For example, stacked wall panel systems offer greater design flexibility than monolithic wall panel systems, as different types of wall panels can be used alternately and interchangeably in a single wall section (for example, a single wall section may have a lowermost solid wall panel resistant to deformation or marking by the shoes of a user, above which is positioned one or more thicker, fabric-covered sound-absorptive panels, above which is mounted a relatively thin light transmitting panel etc.). Additionally, stacked wall panel systems have individual components that are generally smaller and lighter; i.e., monolithic wall panels are by their very nature larger and heavier, as compared to stackable wall panels, which makes their handling more difficult and dangerous for moving, storage and assembly of the resulting workstations.
Most stacked wall panel mounting systems for constructing workstations are of the so-called “post and beam” type, which feature wall sections typically having two vertical posts (hereinafter referred to as “columns”), typically of circular cross-section, with a series of parallel support beams extending horizontally therebetween. The wall panels are attached to and supported between adjacent ones of the horizontally extending support beams. The support beams of each wall section are typically releasably attachable to the columns at variable vertical positions during assembly, which allows for the use of wall panels of differing heights. Moreover, adjacent wall sections, may be aligned with one another to form a substantially straight workstation wall portion, or may be arranged in angled relation to one another, around the circumference of common columns, to form a non-linear wall portion. This type of system allows for the selection and use of support beams having a variety of different cross-sectional profiles and constructions to accommodate the use therewith of a wide variety of mating wall panels having different thicknesses, constructions and means of affixation to the support beams.
While post and beam wall panel systems have advantages over monolithic wall panel systems and provide for an extremely wide variety of construction possibilities for workstations, they present their own unique problems and shortcomings.
For example, the wide variety of support beams required to accommodate the coincident variety of wall panel types not only increases the design and production costs of prior art post and beam systems, but also increases the complexity and costs to inventory, stock, ship and assemble these systems. There thus exists in the prior art the need for a post and beam wall panel mounting system that utilizes a single type of support beam for use with wall panels having a wide variety of thicknesses and constructions.
Another problem associated with prior art post and beam wall panel systems is that the mounting means used therein to releasably attach the support beams to the columns are, for the most part, clamp-type mechanisms which grip around the outside perimeter of the respective column at a selected height and angular displacement with the aid of one or more nut and bolt assemblies. Such wall panel mounting systems are not only bulky and aesthetically unpleasing (detracting from what would otherwise typically be a sleek and modern appearance for the assembled workstations, but are cumbersome to install, requiring an unnecessarily large amount of effort and dexterity on the part of installers in order to effect not only their original installation, but also subsequent changes between wall panels, columns, support beams, or any combination thereof. Moreover, the final placement of the support beams on the columns is, because of the lack of any spacing or indexing means associated with the columns, largely a matter of trial and error on the part of the installer.
Some prior art post and beam wall panel systems have developed more aesthetically pleasing means for mounting the support beams to the columns which are less visibly intrusive. However, these systems typically still involve the use of nut and bolt assemblies connecting with the columns, such that they also require a significant degree of manual dexterity and patience on the part of the installer to assemble. The more advanced of these prior art systems have a squared bolt head of a nut and bolt assembly sliding in a vertical channel formed in the column, with the stem of the bolt passing through a mounting lug or bracket associated with each support beam, to thereafter receive a nut of the assembly in screw threaded relation thereon.
Perhaps more importantly, none of the currently available post and beam wall panel systems provide an effective means for variably pre-spacing the mounting brackets for the support beams on the columns before tightening for ready acceptance of wall panels of different heights therebetween. This is especially problematic in relation to flexible wall panels (such as those created from, for example, PVC plastic mesh), which flexible wall panels have no rigidity that might otherwise be relied upon to assist in such pre-spacing.
Prior art post and beam wall panel systems exhibit a further shortcoming related to the problem discussed in the previous paragraph, in that, during installation, the user must manually ensure that each support beam is installed substantially level to horizontal and to the other support beams within a wall section, if the wall panels of that section are to fit evenly therebetween. Moreover, the support beams of adjacent wall sections must all be substantially level to one another, if an even and level appearance to the assembled workstation is to be maintained. To adjust the support beams in this regard, an installer of a prior art post and beam wall panel system will typically be required to manually tighten and loosen the attachment means associated with each support beam several times. That is, once a support beam is preliminary mounted between two columns at an approximate selected height, the installer must thereafter undertake to manually level the support beam through use of a level placed on the support beam, and through re-adjustment of the attachment height of one or both ends of the support beam on a trial-and-error basis. This is particularly important in respect of the bottom-most support beam of a wall section of stacked wall panels. Thus, prior art post and beam wall panel systems fail to provide an integrated means for assisting in achieving a substantially uniform height of engagement of the support columns by both ends of support beams of the system, so as to save time and frustration in leveling said support beams during installation.
Another problem of prior art post and beam wall panel systems is that the columns used therein are typically not extendible in height. They typically come only in half heights (typically used for front wall sections of workstations) and full heights (typically used for rear and side walls of workstations), that cannot be varied. This, of course, limits the number of wall panels that can be stacked between two adjacent columns to the height of the shortest column. More importantly, the ability to re-configure or change prior art workstations to meet new or changing needs is significantly limited, as the height of all of the columns (and the associated wall sections) is fixed and cannot be extended. There thus exists a need for an improved wall panel mounting system that provides a means of quickly and easily extending the height of the columns used therein.
Many prior art post and beam wall panel systems optionally include one or more office furniture accessories designed to be mounted on the columns of same by way of support arms or brackets. Typical examples of such accessories are, without limitation, work surfaces, shelves, cabinets, bins and drawers. Such prior art support arms or brackets suffer from the same general problems described above in relation to the mounting brackets used to mount the support beams—i.e., they are overly bulky and aesthetically displeasing, they have a multiplicity of nut and bolt assemblies that make them cumbersome to install on the columns, they require individual leveling and/or angular orientation about the columns by trial and error, and they fail to have any integral height adjustment, indexing or leveling means associated therewith. Thus, such prior art post and beam wall panel systems fail to provide a quick, easy and cost effective way of installing such accessories on the columns in secure, indexed vertical or angular relation thereto.
Another longstanding problem associated with prior art wall panel systems for workstations is known as “workstation creep”, which is the phenomenon wherein, at, during, or after installation, one finds that each workstation in a row of aligned workstations has taken up more space than has been planned and/or allotted for it. For example, an architect or office designer may plan on what is known in the art as a “four foot” workstation actually taking up four feet of space in a particular direction. In reality, the “four foot” designation refers only to the length of the work surface of the workstation, for example a desktop, and does not typically include the width of the wall panels that separate adjacent work surfaces from one another. Such miscalculations can, lead to serious problems during installation of prior art wall panel systems. For example, in an instance of installing ten adjacent workstations each having a wall panel two inches thick between adjacent work surfaces, the workstation creep could account for an under-calculation of as much as twenty-two inches. Such a loss of space is compounded by the difficult nature of installation of prior art systems, in that one may not realize the error until a number of the workstations have already been installed. At that point, reinstallation can be very time consuming, if it is even possible to install a wall panel system having the desired number of workstation in the given amount of floor space. Prior art systems fail to provide a means for dealing with the longstanding problem of work station creep.
The present invention addresses at least one or more of the above described problems associated with the prior art.